Actor and musician
Caleb Landry Jones makes his recording debut with
The Mother Stone, a 15-song psychedelic rock opus of sprawling complexity, abrupt tonal shifts, and dark-hued pop arrangements. Dating back to the late 2000s, the Texas native has built up an impressive resume of film and television credits, from Breaking Bad and X-Men to Get Out and Twin Peaks. It turns out he has also been making music since a young age and boasts a deep back catalog of material, much of it inspired by
the Beatles' more exploratory moments and the ramshackle psych of
Syd Barrett's thrilling post-
Pink Floyd burnout. While filming the zombie art-comedy The Dead Don't Die,
Jones played some of his demos for director
Jim Jarmusch, who recommended him to experimental enthusiasts Sacred Bones Records, the same label that has released some of
Jarmusch's own recordings. Teaming up with producer
Nic Jodoin (
Black Lips),
Jones unleashed what sounds like a lifetime's worth of ideas and pent-up weirdness, constructing a wild suite of interconnected songs, replete with lurching orchestral sections and harsh fuzzy textures and sung in a variety of different voices and timbres like a character actor gone off the rails. Two-part opener "Flag Day/The Mother Stone" sets the tone with a macabre parade of marching brass and frantic Dixieland that segues into a sludgy, string-adorned rocker. Much of what follows falls into a similar pattern of unpredictability, with rhythms changing on a dime, orchestral elements jumping in and out of the mix, and
Jones the madcap marauder leading the charge to who knows where. The production is consistently exciting and the arrangements often thrilling, but within the suite, there is hardly room for a breath, much less a memorable song. Experienced as a whole -- as its gapless sequence suggests it is intended --
The Mother Stone falls into a busy and confusing tangle of parts that becomes exhausting after a while.